Getting The Hump

Boston. Sunday morning, Aug 3rd 2008.

I skipped breakfast and boarded the 8:30am Whale Watch boat heading out of the harbour towards the Stellwagen Bank marine sanctuary. I'd say that around 90% of my fellow passengers were from Korean and Japanese tour groups. It was a very smooth ride but one or two people were unfortunately staring into their sick bags right from the start.

I'd made this trip twice before on previous visits to Boston. The first time back in '99 was an amazing revelation - there were whales everywhere - numerous humpbacks, minkies and dolphins, splashing and jumping all around the boat. The second time, a few years later, was however a bit of a damp squib in comparison, with maybe 3 whales obscured in light fog. I mean it was OK, but I knew that with a bit of luck this third trip might be better...


And sure enough, it was. When the boat reached Stellwagen Bank it was like entering humpback town. It's hard to say how many there were, but I think we saw perhaps 10-15 different humps breaking the surface. I managed to take a bit of video with my little sony - it's OK, just a couple of minutes captured from the whole event, but it inadequately represents the size and grace of these majestic creatures. Squashing the video resolution down into YouTube distances you from the experience even more. You really have to the whales in high definition real life.


It was a good 3 hour trip. As my fellow passengers enthusiastically took photographs, it occurred to me that maybe a few of them might be thinking about what they wanted to eat for lunch. I always find that being out at sea makes me hungry too, and as we headed back to Boston I was looking forward to some fish and chips and a nice cold beer.